French antitrust chief says SFR buyout by rivals is not automatic

Benoît Cœuré, president of France’s Competition Authority, said the planned purchase of SFR by Bouygues Telecom, Orange and Free is not automatically anti-competitive, but will be reviewed closely because it would reshape the French telecom market from four major operators to three.

In an interview published by Le Monde on June 13, Cœuré said regulators would assess the transaction objectively rather than assume it should be blocked. He said the question is whether the deal can be justified on competition grounds, not whether consolidation is inherently forbidden.

The comments are the clearest public signal yet that the proposed breakup sale will face a demanding antitrust process. The deal was announced a week earlier, when Altice France signed a memorandum of understanding with the three operators on June 6 for €20.35 billion.

How the deal came together

Under the proposed structure, Bouygues Telecom, Orange and Free would buy SFR and divide its businesses among themselves if the acquisition is approved. The arrangement would mark one of the biggest shake-ups in the French telecom sector in years.

The transaction has already been framed in market terms as a consolidation play, but Cœuré’s comments indicate that regulators will examine the proposal on its specific effects rather than on the size of the headline price tag alone.

Le Monde’s earlier reporting on June 7 described the agreement as subject to scrutiny from competition authorities in France and Brussels. That scrutiny is now moving to the center of the story as the operators prepare for formal filings.

Why regulators are wary

Cœuré said the main concern is the shift from four major operators to three. France has long been organized around that four-player structure, and a move to three would change the competitive dynamics in pricing, promotion and network strategy.

He said regulators will look for risks that a smaller field could make coordination easier among the remaining players. That includes the possibility of softer price competition, less aggressive commercial behavior or a weaker incentive to fight for market share.

The concern is not limited to consumer mobile service. The deal also matters for business telecom customers, who could be affected by pricing, service bundles and the level of competitive pressure in enterprise contracts.

A tricky transition

Cœuré also pointed to the temporary structure that would hold SFR assets while the operators divide up customers. That kind of transitional arrangement can raise additional concerns because it may involve sensitive information moving between rivals before the final split is completed.

That issue adds another layer to the review. Even if the final market structure were acceptable in principle, regulators may still worry about how the assets are handled in the interim and whether that creates coordination risks before the transaction closes.

The authority’s review will therefore go beyond simple market-share arithmetic. It will also test whether the mechanics of the breakup could itself affect competition while the deal is being implemented.

What the companies must prove

Cœuré said the operators will need to show that any claimed efficiencies are specific to the deal, verifiable and, if possible, quantifiable. He added that such gains would need to be at least partly passed through to consumers.

That standard is demanding. It means the companies will not be able to rely on broad arguments that scale alone improves investment capacity or operational efficiency. They will need concrete evidence that the merger creates benefits that outweigh the loss of competition.

The burden will be especially high because the transaction involves existing rivals dividing a national market. Regulators typically look skeptically at deals that reduce the number of independent competitors and then ask buyers to justify the resulting concentration with measurable benefits.

Review timeline and wider stakes

Cœuré said the review could take up to 18 months once preliminary filings are received. The process will involve both French and European competition authorities, though it is not yet clear which body will take the lead.

That timeline means the deal is still only at the beginning of a long regulatory process. Before any approval, the parties will need to formally notify regulators and provide the detailed structure of the deal, including the proposed asset split and any remedies they may offer.

The stakes extend beyond the three bidders and Altice France. The transaction is being watched as a possible precedent for telecom consolidation in Europe, where regulators have often been cautious about mergers that could weaken competition or raise prices.

For now, the message from France’s antitrust chief is neither approval nor rejection. It is that the SFR buyout is possible, but far from straightforward, and that the competition case will need to be built carefully before regulators decide whether the breakup sale can proceed.